“Do you want a bag?” the sales assistant asked. But our customer was having a bad hair day.

“Compared to what,” she responded angrily.

The answer to this could have been, “compared to not having a bag (you silly old fart).” But staff at Shared Earth try to be polite, and hopefully, the customer went away satisfied.

High street stores give away 13 billion plastic bags each year in the UK. That’s 15 a week for every family. They are used, on average, for 20 minutes, and then thrown away. They litter our streets and the countryside, and are a huge danger to wildlife. Worldwide. over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 dolphins, whales and other sea animals lost their lives last year, their wings, beaks or legs caught in plastic or their digestive tracts blocked because the plastic was mistaken for food.

In Ireland, a bag tax introduced in 2002 reduced usage of plastic bags by 90%. In many other countries, measures are in place to restrict usage or ban them completely. The largest bag manufacturer in China announced last week that it was closing down its factories in response to a decision by the Chinese government to ban plastic bags from June.

On 27 February, the Daily Mail launched its heavyweight ‘Banish the Bags’ campaign. M & S responded by announcing it would charge 5p a bag. On Friday, the Prime Minister took up the cause. Retailers are to be given a year to introduce charges or be compelled to do so by law.

Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, opposes change. It gives out 3 billion bags a year, and its voluntary scheme to reduce usage by 25% by 2008 was a flop – it reduced them by only 7%. Sainsbury’s, which uses 1.6 billion bags, is also dragging its feet. A survey of online grocery shopping last week found it was the worst offender of all, using 10 bags to pack only 30 items. Some – like a box of eggs and a packet of fish – had a bag all to themselves.

Yet 76% of shoppers support the introduction of charges or want an outright ban on plastic bags. According to Wastewatch, a levy would reduce usage by 11 billion bags each year.

What are Fair Trade shops doing? Some of us have been caught hopping. If we use plastic bags, they’re usually biodegradable, but most of us don’t charge for them. Shared Earth will introduce a charge of 10p this week. We also intend to charge for paper bags. They’re recycled, but it still takes energy to make and transport them.

Most Fair Trade shops sell jute or cotton shoppers, for instance Shared Earth’s, which have slogans like ‘I’m Not a Plastic Bag – and I’m Fairly Traded Too’ and ‘Use Me Till My Bottom Wears Out’. We are now selling one design at half price to encourage shoppers to take the responsible option.

Charging for bags could soon become the norm, which will raise substantial sums for environmental charities. Shared Earth will donate the money to a tree-planting scheme in India. The workshops where our wooden boxes are made are, of course, Fair Trade; in time, we hope the trees will be fairly managed and felled too.

Is the Daily Mail jumping on the bandwagon with its campaign against plastic bags? I say – all power to them. If it brings about change, that’s what matters.

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